Misunderstandings
by Rain-Ix
Summary: Jesse and Suze are still in love, but Paul still wants Suze. Lucky Paul can rely on an ancient agreement to get what he wants. Poor Suze isn't exactly happy with this arrangement. When she falls out of a window and has a brush with death, everyone want
1. Why not to leave windows open

Suze POV

I pushed my dark hair out of my eyes hastily. I used a sparkly pink clip to confine the ebony waves, and sat down nervously on the window seat. My hands roamed lazily over the floral cover of the pillow, where Jesse so often sat.

Jesse, I thought, Jesse wasn't sitting in his usual seat. My mind vaguely registered this fact. Where could he be? I wondered where he could be. When was the last time I had seen him? I wondered.

Paul had to have something to do with this. He always had something to do with these things.

God, I was dizzy.

Maybe if I leaned out the window to get some fresh air I would feel better. I stuck my head out of the window, clutching my stomach as another wave of nausea washed over me.

A fight. I remembered a fight. Paul had been there, anger dancing in his dark eyes. So had Jesse, beautiful Jesse had been there.

The idea of a fight was nothing new. The three of us seemed to be in fights, quite a lot. The three of us were a sort of a sickening triangle.

_But not anymore_.

Something in the back of my mind sent up a red flag. Something about Paul. Paul had broken the triangle somehow. Somehow there no longer was a triangle.

_I was betrothed to Paul._

This dawned on me suddenly, making me lurch. My sweating palms slipped around on the windowsil that I had been clutching. I slipped, and felt my head start to spin. I had lost conciousness before I had even hit the ground.

Paul POV

Suze groaned from where she was lying in the hospital bed. She was lucky that one of the neighbors had heard the commotion and had rushed out to see what was wrong. Said neighbor had called an ambulance immediately.

Rico Suave, who sat nervously beside me, looked over at Suze. I scowled when I saw the concern in his eyes. We both knew that she was here because of me.

We had been fighting again, me, Suze, and Rico Suave. I had attacked her with the fact that her and I were to be married by the end of the year, due to an archaic, yet undeniably unbreakble agreement made by our ancestors.

We were the first boy and girl, respectively, in our families that were around the same age, so we were bound to each other.

I had thought that she had known this, but obviously it was news to her, and news that she wasn't taking to well. She had paled, and just barely shifted through my attack. She had gone back to her house weak.

Rico Sauve, of course, had stayed behind to yell at me and try to give me a beating. I, of course, simply answered his questions and left. Suze was mad at me as it was, I didn't think that I needed to go beating up her boyfriend, well ex-boyfriend.

I really hadn't expected her to go and jump out a window. I really hadn't expected her to try and kill herself.

Admittedly, to us death wasn't such a mystery. But I was still shocked and hurt that she had tried to end her life over me.

She had wanted to die because of me.


	2. Paul isn't quiet himself today

Disclaimer: Yeah, I'm Meg Cabot, and this is so mine. Really you ask? Sorry to disappoint you. I wish I was Meg Cabot!

A/N- This is post Haunted, so Jesse is still a ghost. I know, I know, he should be alive but for the purposes of my story, this is better.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I love all of you to pieces, and you know it.

On to the story.

Jesse POV

When I heard Susannah groan, my heart sank. I knew she was in pain. Of course she was, she had just fallen out of a third story window. Or jumped, possibly.

I knew that she had taken the news about Slater hard, but so had I. I loved her. She loved me. We had finally gotten up the courage to tell each other. She was my girlfriend.

I looked over at where Slater was sitting, and scowled as I noted the concern he had in his eyes. He was the one who was taking Susannah away from me. I wanted to hit him, or at least yell, but I knew starting a fight with him in a hospital wouldn't be the brightest idea.

So I sat and stiffly watched Susannah.

I hoped she would wake up soon.

Suze POV

My head hurt so badly. I clutched the smooth white sheet laying over me, and groaned. I couldn't eve open my eyes. I could sense two presences in the room.

Two presences that I would know anywhere.

The first one was Jesse. I wanted so badly to be open my mouth and ask him what had happened. But my lips felt too heavy to part.

The second one was Paul. Paul was just about the last person I wanted to see right then. I didn't want to think of him. Him or our upcoming marriage. I tried to push that thought to the back of my head, and focus on opening my eyes.

When I first got my eyes open, the room spun around me.

Jesse and Paul noticed simultaneously and rushed to my side. They immediately started asking how I was, but I noticed a glint of hurt in Paul's eye. I wondered why. Not that it mattered.

"I'm fine." I told them. Jesse sat down the hospital bed and helped me sit up. He wrapped his arms around me, and I leaned my head into his chest.

"Get off of her De Silva." Paul snapped. His voice was so loud that it made my head split into another wave of pain. I tried and failed miserably to suppress a whimper.

"Shut up, she has a headache." Jesse said softly. He was always so observant like that.

Paul scowled at Jesse. I hoped that they wouldn't start another fight, I couldn't take that. He sat down on the other side of me, and wrapped and arm around my shoulders. The two of them glared at each other, daring the other to say something.

"You didn't have to jump, you know." Paul whispered into my ear.

I didn't know what he was talking about.

"What?" I asked.

"You know. But we'll talk about that later. You should sleep now." He said, kissing my forehead uncharacteristically.

Amazingly, I somehow managed to fall asleep sandwiched between the two of them.


	3. Suze really isn't ready

Disclaimer: The usual. I don't own any characters, etc.

Authors Note: This is skipping ahead to after Suze got out of the hospital.

PAUL POV

Suze had gotten out of the hospital after only a day. She was recovering at he own house. As much as I hated to leave her alone with the cowboy, I agreed that maybe she needed some time to herself. When I say 'some time to herself' I mean 'some time without me'.

But I was a little bit surprised when I got a phone call from a lawyer supposedly representing Miss Susannah Simon. He requested my presence at a casual lunch meeting that afternoon at one.

Of course I accepted. I couldn't have Suze talking to a lawyer without me there to defend myself.

SUZE POV

I was determined to get out of this marriage no matter what. I thought I good start would be getting a lawyer to go over the papers. But the only one who agreed to take on the job said that Paul would have to be present.

I had agreed, but only out of desperation. I was starting to get a little nervous about seeing him again. I was dressed casually, wearing jeans and a sweater. My hair was in a high ponytail, and I was wearing just the minimal makeup. I didn't want Paul to think that I was trying to impress him.

Unfortunately, I was still on crutches from my fall, so I hobbled over to where they where propped up against my wall. I had talked Sleepy into giving me a ride to our meeting place, so I hollered that I was ready.

Oh, how I was lying when I said that.

PAUL POV

I had been sitting with the lawyer Suze had hired for about ten minutes when she came hobbling through the door.

Just the sight of her on crutches made me flinch. I had tried my hardest not to think about the accident.

"You must be Susannah." said the lawyer, extending a hand for her to shake.

"Suze." I greeted cooly.

Suze sat down on the other side of the lawyer. It was obvious that she was trying to put as much distance between us as she could.

"Now, let's talk about this contract." he said, pulling the copy that he had out of his brief case. I nodded distractedly and Suze raised a hand to say 'go ahead'. "Well first of all, both of you have to agreed for us to even try and break this contract." he said, looking expectantly at both of us.

"I agree." Suze said.

"Well I don't." I said.

"What?" asked the lawyer.

"I don't." I repeated.

"Then I guess we'll have to see a court." Suze challenged.

I smirked at her.

"Go ahead. You can't win." I informed her, before standing up and storming out.

Over and out!


	4. Jesse is anxious about the meeting

JESSE POV

Susannah had been gone for almost three hours now. I didn't trust Slater with her, so of course I was nervous that she had been gone for so long. I was both relieved and worried when she came back. I was relieved to see her home in one piece. I was worried because she looked exhausted, and even her eyes were frowning.

"Querida." I murmured as I stood up to greet her. She looked ready to cry, so I pulled her into a comforting hug. I smoothed the tension out of her shoulders as she buried her head in mine.

"Why were you gone so long?" I asked her softly, sitting her down on her bed.

"We're going to court." She informed me, her shoulders shaking softly. It took me a moment before I realized that she was crying. I hardly knew what to do, so I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her as tightly as I could.

PAUL POV

Suze wanted to play? We'd play. I couldn't help but feel the anger boiling up inside of me. I clenched my fist, and had to hold myself back from slamming it into the table, and spilling coffee all over it.

Why couldn't she ever do things the easy way?

Because she was Suze, I thought ryly. No matter, she wouldn't win. There was no way that she could win. She had no case at all, it was all official. It was all in writing.

SUZE POV

The first hearing was set for friday, only four days from now. I really didn't want to have to do this.

"Maybe I could reason with Paul." I said to Jesse, who was sitting in the armchair next to my bed.

"I doubt it." Jesse sighed, looking frustrated.

"It's worth a try." I replied, tiredly.

"It's worth a try." he confirmed.

I looked at the phone that was sitting on my dresser. I was loath to talk to Paul again, but if that was what had to be done, I would. I picked it up, and dialed Paul's number.

"Hello?" he answered. When I heard his voice, my throat seized up.

"Hi, it's Suze." I managed.

"Hey, calling to call it off?" He asked nonchalantly.

"No. Paul I was hoping-" I began hopefully.

"No, Suze. I'm sorry." He said finally, before hanging up.

Jesse looked at me hopefully. I shook my head at him.

"No luck?" he asked.

"No luck." I said, my voice full of despair.


	5. They never teach you the fun words

Disclaimer: Yeah, I'm Meg Cabot, and this is so mine. Really you ask? Sorry to disappoint you. I wish I was Meg Cabot!

A/N- This is post Haunted, so Jesse is still a ghost. I know, I know, he should be alive but for the purposes of my story, this is better.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I love all of you to pieces, and you know it.

On to the story.

SUZE POV

I tried to have fun the next couple of days, but I couldn't. I was constantly expecting the court summons. It would start out in local court, then go slowly up. It would go all the way to the supreme court, I knew, because neither of us would be able to just let the verdict be.

We were both just stubborn like that.

My leg still bothered me, but what bothered me even more was the pained look on Jesse's face. He was worried about me.

I was the kind of girl who always tried to take care of herself. I hated having to lean on anyone else. I hate feeling like a burden to anyone.

It was cold, mid-December, nearing our winter break. Jesse and I were curled up on the couch by the fire. He was reading a book, and I was staring into the flames as if they could somehow give me the answers that I was searching for so desperately.

My kitten walked across the stone hearth, pressing her nose against the metal screen and then jumping back when her she was burned.

"Poor kitty," I said quietly, "she got her little nose burned." I said sympathetically. The little white ball of fuzz looked up at me and mewed. Jesse chuckled before patting the couch for the kitten. She jumped onto the couch, right into his lap.

I leaned against his shoulder, wondering if this was the last calm night we'd spend together.

That was the night that I got the summons.

PAUL POV

I had dressed up nicely for the court, my suit was without a single wrinkle. Even though it was only local, I had to make a good first impression.

Suze looked impeccable too, not that that was anything new. Her black hair was in a french twist (even though I'm pretty sure the only French she actually knew was the stuff they didn't teach you at school), and her makeup was natural and light. She was wearing a pink skirt and a baby blue blouse with shell buttons, and black high heels. Of course everything was topped off by a tasteful string of pearls.

The trial was short, with just us and a few friends testifying. The verdict was of course in my favor, but I knew that Suze would appeal.

Even though I hoped she wouldn't.

Because the truth was I really loved her. She was everything I wasn't: honest, good, virtuous, studious, generous, and caring. She may have put up a tough front, but I could see through it. Maybe I wanted her because I secretly wanted to be like her.

But I couldn't. And I knew that I should let her and Jesse, yes I called him by his name, go. But I was selfish and I couldn't let her go.

I think that we both new that I would win in the end. She had no case, only a deep-seated desperation that hurt me. Maybe she just wanted to look like she had at least put up some sort of fight.

SUZE POV

I had meant to avoid Paul as much as possible during the hearing, and I had been successful. But somehow, in a cruel twist of something between fate and irony, I met him in the park a few blocks away from the court house. I had ran there after the hearing, upset at the unfavorable out come.

I knew that the war was far from over, but I had lost a battle. And I had wanted to get somewhere where I knew I wouldn't be bothered. The park had seemed ideal.

I sat on the swings for a while, my high heels thrown into the snow. I wondered if the case would start to pick up coverage soon. It was bound to. It was going up another level, and I was to return to court the next week.

I planned to spend the time between that time and my return to court being happy. And I had always loved parks.

But somehow I Paul had found me there.

"Suze." he greeted, sitting down on the swing next to me.

"Slater." I said cooly.

"Please, if you call that out in a couple months, people will think your talking to yourself." he taunted.

"Don't play with me Slater." I warned.

"I'm not Suze. You're the one playing games." he retorted, pumping his legs so that his swing rose off the ground.

"What are you talking about?" I asked exasperatedly.

"We both know how it's going to end." he said.

"What?" I asked in surprise.

"It's a foregone conclusion." he said cryptically.

I looked at him curiously. He looked professional, but tired. There were hints of dark circles under his eyes. Was he losing sleep over me?

"Just give in Suze." he begged.

I looked at him, before jumping off the swing and going over to where my high heels were.

"I can't." I said, picking them up, the running off.

A/N: I know you're all thinking, "Wow! She actually updated! It's a miracle!" but these things do happen occasionally. I'm not exactly a scholar on legal proceedings, so any information would be greatly appreciated. And I apologize for butchering anything.

Much love!


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